Day 4

After enjoying some soccer last night, we came back to the school to enjoy some hot chocolate, internet, and television. We ended up watching Planet Earth on Animal Planet and as fate would have it, it was the episode on the polar regions. It was a bit surreal seeing terrain and wildlife on Animal Planet that we could walk out the door and see. It also provided us with our only viewing of a musk ox so far, other than ones that have come on a plate.

            Once again this morning started with breakfast at the cantina. From there we made it down to the dog sled area where we were greeted by a pack of 8 sled dog puppies that ran up to play with us. They were so cute. We spent a while petting them and letting them chew on our shoes and fingers. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a better way to start the day than playing with puppies. We are already planning our next trip back to see them.

            After stopping by the school to put on copious amounts of sunscreen and bug spray, we headed back out along the incredibly bumpy dirt road. We stopped and went for a hike out to a waterfall along the river that carries melt water from the glacier out to the fjord. It was incredible how powerful the water was that was flowing through the area. We took plenty of time taking pictures and listening to some impromptu geology lessons. Luckily the mosquitoes weren’t quite as bad on today’s hike. My bite total is up to 23 which is nothing compared to Taylor’s (another JSEP participant from Oregon) 74 mosquito bites. After our hike, we headed back into town for lunch at the Polar Bear Inn. Today I tried a fish burger and fries which wasn’t too bad. The only real surprise was the rather viscous and interesting-tasting ketchup that came with it. We took a sample back to conduct some further testing. While at lunch we also ran into a couple of the scientists from KISS who tried to teach us a few words in Greenlandic. We learned that the name of the town we are in, Kangerlussuaq, means big fjord. While the more American way of pronouncing Kangerlussuaq is kang (rhymes with fang) – er - loo – swack, we have found the actual Greenlandic pronunciation is much more difficult. The Greenlandic pronunciation is more along the lines of ganger-slu-suark, although none of us have really been able to get that down. There are quite a few sounds in Greenlandic that don’t exist in English. Hopefully with some practice and help from the Greenlandic students we will be able to say at least a few things in Greenlandic by the end of this experience.

            From there we went to the grocery store to see what interesting snacks we could find to try out. A few of us got some drinks that were kind of like melted milkshakes. Mine was banana flavored. They were pretty good which was more than we could say for some of the candy we got. We have found that multiple types of candy we got have a really strong menthol-like flavor. It makes a lot of it taste like cold medicine. We also stopped by the gift shop in the airport and got a few things. Evan (a JSEP participant from Ohio) even bought a CD of Greenlandic music, which did not live up to the warning sticker on the front that said it was "addictive".

            After shopping we drove up one of the surrounding hills that is home to a lot of radio equipment. Kangerlussuaq served as a US military base during World War II and the Cold War so there is still a lot of their equipment around. We were able to get a nice view of the town and fjord from the top. We also got to see some rocks that had “glacier polish”. As the ice moved over these rocks, the small rocks and pieces of sand stuck in the ice scraped against the rock leaving it relatively smooth and shiny. It’s been really interesting getting to see the evidence of ice movement that is left in the rocks around here.

            Right now we are just taking a break while we finish getting set up for the other students who are arriving tomorrow. It’s good to hear that there was finally some rain in Tucson. Right now it is a sweltering 67 degrees Fahrenheit in Kangerlussuaq. Everyone gave me strange looks today when I said it felt kind of like winter in Tucson. We got a glimpse at our schedule for the next few weeks and it looks like we are going to do lots of really cool things. I can’t wait!

View of Kangerlussuaq

Me with the waterfall behind me

One of the adorable puppies next to its wrestling siblings